Taxi Booking Competition
Taxi and other transport services using platforms at home and abroad, including Tmap Taxi and Kakao Taxi, are scheduled to be launched from early next year. Thus, the industry is paying attention to how the transportation sector will be affected by those services.
Numerous apps for calling taxis, like Uber and Easy Taxi, are already available in the country, and nearly 10 more services are expected to be introduced in the first quarter of next year.
Daum Kakao announced on Dec. 17 that it already signed a contract with the Seoul Taxi Association and the Korea Smart Card Corporation, with a plan to roll out Kakao Taxi during the first quarter of next year. The app is going to be released for taxi drivers first to attract them and build a stable service environment. After that, a customer version will be made available.
SK Planet is trying to deliver tailored services so that both taxi drivers and customers can use Tmap Taxi. The company aims to provide convenient services to taxi drivers based on Tmap's differentiated directions algorithm and correct traffic information. The company also strives to provide taxi services to customers based on the reliability of Tmap.
In particular, expectations are high for Tmap, since it has its unique route recommendation algorithm that considers traffic information accumulated for 12 years, time, and weather. SK Planet is planning to launch the Tmap Taxi as a separate app from Tmap.
Other taxi companies at home and abroad are gearing up to unveil their services in the first quarter of 2015. The prime examples of foreign taxi apps are Get Taxi, Hailo, and Lyft. Hailo already appointed the head of its Korean branch. As for local companies, car sharing company Socar is preparing for Social Taxi.
Much attention is being paid to whether or not the nation's top portal operator Naver will introduce Line Taxi to Korea, after Japan. Initially, Line Taxi, an app for calling taxis through Line or its official account, was scheduled to be released early this month. But the launch was postponed due to the delayed introduction of Line Pay, a method to pay for taxi fares.
However, Naver previously revealed its plan to expand the business model in partnership with taxi companies around the world, after distributing Line Taxi throughout Japan. Hence, the possibility that Line Taxi will be launched in the nation cannot be excluded.